The Only Exception
by Firefly Red
Summary: A supposed coward wrote to her in his last letter "Granger, keep this as the last gift..." Several years later, Hermione Granger realizes what it actually was...


**House: Gryffindor**

 **Category: Short story**

 **Prompts: Singing somebody to sleep**

 **Word count: 1,681**

* * *

The incessant pitter patter of raindrops against the window pane was not what woke up the little pale- haired boy up. Nor was it the loud roar of thunder that seemed to shake the Earth to its very core.

Rather, it was the nightmares...again.

"Mom!" his cry was loud enough to startle the brown haired witch from her deep slumber across the room from his.

The echo of footsteps were faintly heard to his ears and yet they were enough to ease his rapid heartbeats. He knew she'd be here in a flash of another lightning.

And just as he foresaw, the next lightning flashed and he instantly found his head being cradled into warm loving hands.

His mother's hands.

His eight year old body still shook involuntarily even with her comforting presence engulfing him but she made sure to get rid of it by wrapping her arms around him and snuggling him to her breast.

"It's alright Scorp, I'm here"

And no matter how many nights she had spoken those very same tender words to him, they never failed in soothing him.

She kept cooing to him, gently coaxing the trembling to subside until finally, he felt his now still body being laid again across his bed and the emerald green covers being pulled over until they reached his pointy chin.

He looked at her with intent silver eyes, silently imploring her to make the next move.

And without further reluctance, she did.

His favourite part of the night was this, to be lulled back to a thick haze of dreams just by the beautiful sound of his mother singing.

She could have been a nightingale in her previous life.

Although it would forever remain a mystery to him if nightingales ever sang bitter sweet symphonies.

 _When I was younger I saw my daddy cry_

 _And curse at the wind._

 _He broke his own heart and I watched_

 _As he tried to reassemble it..._

* * *

 _And my momma swore_

 _That she would never let herself forget._

 _And that was the day that I promised_

 _I'd never sing of love if it does not exist._

Her brown eyes swirled down further the perfumed loose piece of parchment she had found tucked into the pocket of her coat, desperately trying to rein in the tears that were threatening to flow down again.

She lifted a hand to trace patterns across the aristocratic writing sprawled all over the parchment, and she could feel the words he had written on the top ring invariably in her head.

 _Granger, keep this as the last gift..._

* * *

 _Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul_

 _That love never lasts._

 _And we've got to find other ways to make it alone._

 _Or keep a straight face._

She watched him as she sang softly, running her fingers through his fair silky locks and felt relieved to see his grey eyes drifting shut ever so slowly.

She didn't want to alarm him with her tears. Knowing how immensely protective he could get, she was sure he'd skip school the next day just so he could stay back with her.

She didn't want that.

He was only eight and yet, she could see how in a few years, he'd grow to become a polyjuice potioned replica of his father. He wouldn't be there to see his son grow up but she knew undoubtedly he'd have never been Lucius Malfoy to Scorpius. He was never his father's son.

He defected to the Order because goodness appealed to him.

Just like she did.

Her voice wavered slightly as she moved on to the next verses...

 _And I've always lived like this_

 _Keeping a comfortable distance._

 _And up until now I have sworn to myself_

 _That I'm content with loneliness._

 _Because none of it was ever worth the risk._

Where in Merlin's name did he ever come across a Muggle song whilst living in the Magical world, in addition to harboring an intense hatred for Mudbloods and Muggles alike?

She yearned to know.

Maybe he had accidently played the radio whilst she was sleeping in their Muggle hideout during the climax of the Horcrux hunting with her two best friends.

She remembered a rainy day when the two pairs had split in their hunt for those damned pieces of Voldemort and they had landed at an old Muggle hotel whose stairs and beds creaked noisily, in the name of refuge.

Despite it's battered, worn out appearance, she'd cherish it for as long as she lived.

For it was the very same place where Scorpius was conceived.

She often wondered how they had made that drastic turn from harsh bickers to harsh kisses. One moment they were arguing fiercely and then the next moment, she was thrown against the wall and his lips were pressed hard against hers.

That night, she concluded that he actually was a bundle of contradictions.

His demeanor had always seemed to be ice-cold during their time in Hogwarts but now, his touches had left burning hot trails all over her body that left her aching for more.

His kisses were brutal and harsh but the arms that tightened around her naked waist spoke of a tender sort of desperation, like he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go.

And when she was on the brink of her orgasm, the mask had slipped away from his face and his grey eyes had filled with an emotion she had often seen only in Ron's baby blue ones.

Love.

A few hours into the night when she had woken up with a fading ache between her thighs, she had seen the toned back of his taut body bent over the radio placed on the window sill and had only heard a female voice fade into nothingness before he abruptly shut it off.

 _And I'm on my way to believing_

* * *

 _I've got a tight grip on reality,_

 _But I can't let go of what's in front of me here._

 _I know you're leaving in the morning when you wake up._

 _Leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream._

Her own voice too now began to fade into a soft whisper when she noted the steady rise and fall of her son's chest, indicating he had already fallen asleep.

She watched him for a while, a watery smile playing on her lips before leaning down, tickling his cheeks with her brown tresses and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

 _Darling, you are the only exception._

Her last whisper to him before she left for her own room unfortunately remained unheard.

But she knew there was still many more sleepless nights to go.

* * *

She reentered her room, sighing heavily as she closed the bedroom door behind her.

Her bed lay forlornly in front of her and for a moment in time, her heart ached to share it with someone she loved. Scorpius used to sometimes sleep in with her but as the years had passed by, he had stopped, claiming with Malfoy-like pride that he was a grown boy now.

Pretty soon, she wouldn't even have him around to share sleepless nights with when she'd send him off to Hogwarts. Because he was currently enrolled in a Muggle school, he'd come back every day and she found his cheery presence in the house so very uplifting.

She couldn't bear to think about noiseless days and dreary nights.

Her brown eyes suddenly fell on the silver frame kept on her bed side. Glittering under the bed lamp, the sight of his neatly scrawled words across the old piece of parchment somehow made a wave of peace wash over her, in spite of herself.

Her vision blurred but her mind remembered each and every word he had written in his last letter.

 _Granger, keep this as the last gift..._

The verses she had just sung were neatly jotted down underneath those words following which were scrawled his own thoughts.

 _Stereotypes demand that I stay a 100 feet away from Muggle nonsense. But this song didn't seem like nonsense to me. It made perfect sense rather._

 _Especially since the first time I heard it was the night we first made love._

 _Merlin knows what lengths I had to go to just to find out the name of it._

 _Call me a cheesy ferret Granger but this song...says everything I could never have said to you._

 _Tomorrow we go to war and I won't make promises that I can't keep. If I die, I'm gonna die like the brave man you believed me to be and not that sniveling little coward who chickened away from killing Dumbledore._

 _This is new territory for me and you'd know since I scarcely express my feelings. But tonight as I watched you sleep beside me for what probably could have been the last time, I was hit with a bludger - like heaviness over the realization that tomorrow, one of us wouldn't come back._

 _So take this as goodbye or hello to forever or whatever that comes in the aftermath of the war._

 _Whatever the outcome, I shall be by your side through this song...always_

 _D.M_

She felt a kind of peace wash over her as soon as she mentally reached the end of the letter, the same kind of feeling she felt welling up in her chest every time she glanced at her fair-haired son who bore a striking resemblance to him.

She hummed the verses he had penned down as a lullaby to her son ever since he came into the world and in turn, got to relish in the feel of the presence of a man who had stolen her heart before dying the courageous man's death.

It was then she came upon another realisation

Draco Malfoy's last gift to her wasn't the letter

It was Scorpius...

* * *

 **I honestly think the song I've chosen "The Only Exception" perfectly describes Draco's state of mind, even though it has been sung by the female lead of Paramore. Told you I had an eccentric mind didn't I?**

 **Your views on it would be much appreciated. . . so please let me know!**


End file.
